Virt-builder

virt-builder is a command line tool for building new virtual machines included in libguestfs-tools package.

http://libguestfs.org/virt-builder.1.html

Examples

• virt-builder --list and virt-builder --notes debian-9 to see if there is notes available.
• virt-builder debian-9 --format qcow2
• virt-builder debian-9 --format qcow2 --size 20G
• virt-builder debian-9 --format qcow2 --size 20G --hostname MY_NEW_VM_NAME
• virt-builder debian-9 --format qcow2 --size 20G --hostname MY_NEW_VM_NAME --install "PACKAGE_NAME_1,PACKAGE_NAME_2"
• virt-builder debian-9 --format qcow2 --size 20G --hostname MY_NEW_VM_NAME --install "PACKAGE_NAME_1,PACKAGE_NAME_2" --root-password password:YOUR_ROOT_PASS

List of images: http://builder.libguestfs.org/

virt-builder ubuntu-18.04 --format qcow2 --hostname YOUR_HOST_NAME --root-password password:YOUR_PASSWORD
[   2.0] Downloading: http://libguestfs.org/download/builder/ubuntu-18.04.xz
############################################################################################################## 100.0%#   ################################################################################################################### 100.0%
[ 286.1] Planning how to build this image
[ 286.1] Uncompressing
[ 288.2] Converting raw to qcow2
[ 291.1] Opening the new disk
[ 298.2] Setting a random seed
virt-builder: warning: random seed could not be set for this type of guest
[ 298.2] Setting the hostname: YOUR_HOST_NAME
[ 299.1] Setting passwords
[ 299.8] Finishing off
                   Output file: ubuntu-18.04.qcow2
                   Output size: 6.0G
                 Output format: qcow2
            Total usable space: 5.8G
                    Free space: 4.3G (74%)

Other options:

--size 40G

To boot it under libvirt use virt-install --import command.

Related activities

• Install KVM in an Ubuntu Server

Related commands

• virt-rescue Run a rescue shell on a virtual machine

See also

• libguestfs-tools: virt-sysprep, virt-clone, virt-builder, virt-customize, virt-resize, virt-rescue, virt-sparsify, guestmount, guestfish, virt-inspector, virt-cat, virt-log, virt-df, virt-ls, virt-filesystems, virt-list-filesystems, virt-edit

http://libguestfs.org/virt-builder.1.html